Shanghai has taken the first step in a major new effort to modernize its
agriculture, improve the lives of farmers and equalize government infrastructure
spending between rural and suburban areas.
The development blueprint, endorsed on Saturday by the Shanghai Committee of
the Communist Party of China, sketches out the intent to build a "new socialist
countryside" by 2020 that fosters greater prosperity in the farm community.
The plan's major provisions call for increasing financial support for
agribusiness, better training for farmers in modern agricultural methods,
greater funding for transport, environmental protection and communications in
suburban areas and improved social security for those who work the land.
"We will concentrate on projects that are closely related to farmers'
fundamental interests," Party Secretary Chen Liangyu told a plenary meeting of
the committee.
He urged committee members to take a more balanced view on the joint
development of the 600-square-kilometer downtown and the 6,000 square kilometers
of rural land.
The proposal encourages city government to increase its financial support for
rural projects and raise the level of infrastructure spending to make it equal
with funding for the downtown.
Much of the new investment will be used to build a better public transport
system, including a bus network among villages, more roads and several Metro
lines linking the suburbs to the downtown.
One of the biggest projects is a connection between Pudong and Chongming
Island that features a 8.9-kilometer tunnel and a 10.3-kilometer bridge to be
finished by 2010. The project also includes an extension of the
under-construction Metro No. 9 to Chongming.
In the proposal's environmental protection area, the government is urged to
conserve historic structures, including bridges, old villages and canal towns,
and help develop rural tourism, including bed-and-breakfast inns.
The city is also asked to spend more on modern technologies to grow grain,
vegetables, rapeseed and other crops.
Also under the proposal, city government is encouraged to build a rural
medical insurance system similar to the one in the downtown and to subsidize
vocational training for suburban students.
